SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2012

SAT 19:00 Decisive Weapons (b0078dxf)
Series 1

The P-51 - Cadillac of the Skies

In 1943, the large and slow Flying Fortresses, used in the US Air Force's daylight bombing raids, were being shot out of the sky at a rate of up to 60 per day. Only one fighter plane could save them - the single-seat P51 Mustang. The P51 enabled American pilots to fly eight-hour missions - by the end of the war, it accounted for half of all German planes destroyed, either in the air or on the ground. American and German veterans recount the legend that was the Mustang.


SAT 19:30 Decisive Weapons (b0077c0f)
Series 1

The Harrier - Jumping Jet Flash

Untested in combat and generally derided by the British military establishment, the Harrier proved itself in the Falklands conflict when just 20 of them took on a 200-strong Argentinian air force.


SAT 20:00 Sicily Unpacked (b0196wpw)
Episode 1

In the first episode, Andrew Graham-Dixon and Giorgio Locatelli take viewers on a journey into the heart of Sicily and introduce one another to the things they love about the island.

Their first stop takes them to Giorgio's friend Vittorio and his restaurant near the seaside village of Porto Paolo. There is no menu - you are served whatever is best that day. It is Giorgio's favourite restaurant in the world. For him, the larger-than-life Vittorio represents the best of Sicily.

Sicily may be less famous for art than its northern neighbours, but Andrew wants to change that. He takes Giorgio to see one of his favourite works of art in the capital Palermo, a typically Sicilian chapel hidden away down one of the city's many narrow streets. Created by the Palermitan sculptor Giacomo Serpotta, for Andrew it is a stunning example of the Sicilian approach to art and architecture.

Palermo is an urban jungle, and Andrew and Giorgio attempt to navigate the traffic to visit the colourful markets of this buzzing city. Like the rest of Sicily, food is at the heart of everyday life here, and they sample one of the city's signature dishes - pasta with fresh sardines.

They also travel back to the 12th century and enter the Arab world while visiting the Zisa palace, check out the gilded Palatine chapel and attend a traditional wedding, and explore some of the city's more surprising attractions, such as the Unesco-protected Cuticchio Puppet Theatre.

Plus the pair explore how, amongst the buzz and great beauty of the island, the shadowy presence of the mafia lurks around almost every corner.

To round off their stay in Palermo, Giorgio and Andrew have one last drink at a Palermitan bar before heading off on the next leg of their journey through Sicily.


SAT 21:00 Inspector Montalbano (b01cqmm2)
The Shape of Water

Mr Luparello, a renowned local engineer and leading political figure, is found dead in a car at a notorious prostitution spot on the outskirts of Vigata. The coroner rules that he died of a heart attack following an amorous encounter. Fending off pressure from prominent ecclesiastical figures who wish to keep the case under wraps and navigating the intricacies of local party politics, Montalbano goes about making sense of the available evidence, including the incongruous discovery of an expensive necklace found at the site of the murder.

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:55 Horizon (b00hr6bk)
2008-2009

Can We Make a Star on Earth?

Professor Brian Cox takes a global journey in search of the energy source of the future. Called nuclear fusion, it is the process that fuels the sun and every other star in the universe. Yet despite over five decades of effort, scientists have been unable to get even a single watt of fusion electricity onto the grid.

Brian returns to Horizon to find out why. Granted extraordinary access to the biggest and most ambitious fusion experiments on the planet, Brian travels to the USA to see a high-security fusion bomb-testing facility in action and is given a tour of the world's most powerful laser. In South Korea, he clambers inside the reaction chamber of K-Star, the world's first supercooled, superconducting fusion reactor, where the fate of future fusion research will be decided.


SAT 23:55 Top of the Pops (b01cc6n1)
17/02/77

Featuring the Moments, the Brothers, Les Gray, Thelma Houston, the Rubettes, Leo Sayer and Mr Big. Dance sequence from Legs and Co.


SAT 00:30 Timothy Spall: All at Sea (b01cl52j)
Message in a Bottle

Timothy Spall and his wife Shane are back on board their beloved barge the Princess Matilda as they conclude their trip around the British coast.

Tim takes on Rattray Head in the face of a huge storm. This is the equivalent of Land's End for Scotland and the point where they head south for the first time. The North Sea soon becomes the new enemy as he and Shane struggle to cope with this unrelenting force of nature.

On land they find wonderful Scottish towns - Peterhead, Eyemouth and Stonehaven - but it is the town of Banff that resonates most. They fall in love with it and are sad to leave it behind as they pursue their odyssey of circumnavigating Britain. At the end of the episode, they eventually reach the English sea border, where they launch a message in a bottle.


SAT 01:00 Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World (b00q2ly2)
Series 1

Heart of Oak

Historian Dan Snow charts the defining role the Royal Navy played in Britain's struggle for modernity - a grand tale of the twists and turns which thrust the people of the British Isles into an indelible relationship with the sea and ships.

Heart of Oak opens with a dramatic retelling of 16th- and 17th-century history. Victory over the Armada proved a turning point in the nation's story as tiny, impoverished England was transformed into a seafaring nation, one whose future wealth and power lay on the oceans. The ruthless exploits of Elizabethan seafaring heroes like Francis Drake created a potent new sense of national identity that combined patriotism and Protestantism with private profiteering.

At sea and on land, Snow shows how the navy became an indispensable tool of state, weaving the stories of characters like Drake, God's republican warrior at sea Robert Blake, and Samuel Pepys, administrator par excellence, who laid the foundations for Britain's modern civil service.

With access to the modern navy and reconstructed ships of the time, Snow recounts the navy's metamorphosis from a rabble of West Country freebooters to possibly the most complex industrial enterprise on earth.


SAT 02:00 Sicily Unpacked (b0196wpw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 03:00 Decisive Weapons (b0078dxf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:30 Decisive Weapons (b0077c0f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]



SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2012

SUN 19:10 Natural World (b007j217)
2006-2007

The Bloodhound and the Beardie

For thousands of years dogs were working animals and not just pets, carefully bred to hunt, guard, herd or retrieve. Now these finely-tuned instincts are turning working dogs into problem pets. This film follows two dogs, a bloodhound called Holly and a bearded collie called Herbie. Neither dog has done a day's work in its life and both face an uncertain future in rescue homes because they are so out of control. In a unique experiment, Holly and Herbie are taken to professional trainers to see if they can be put back to work sniffing out criminals and herding sheep, and given the second chance they deserve.


SUN 20:00 One Man and His Dog (b00x2qjt)
2010

Episode 1

Kate Humble and Matt Baker host this iconic programme which returns for its thirty fourth series.

The Young Handler and Brace rounds kick off the competition and there are tips on how to buy a trialling dog at auction.


SUN 21:00 My Dog Tulip (b01cqmwx)
The frankly scatological comic recollections of writer JR Ackerley concerning his care for a troubled Alsatian in post-war London. Animated adaptation, in often graphic detail, of a middle-aged, confirmed bachelor's troubled relationship with 'his' dog.


SUN 22:20 The Baader Meinhof Complex (b01cr94k)
Drama about the early years of violent left-wing terrorist network the Red Army Faction, which organised bombings, kidnappings and murders throughout Germany in the 1970s.

In German with English subtitles.


SUN 00:40 Transatlantic Sessions (b015r5qf)
Series 5

Episode 2

The best of Nashville, Ireland and Scotland in a format that affords a unique insight into the sheer joy of making music. Recorded in an old hunting lodge at Glen Lyon near Aberfeldy in the Perthshire Highlands, top vocal and instrumental exponents of the country and Celtic traditions gather to rehearse and play together with no audience except themselves and a resident house band.

Music co-directors are Nashville's Jerry Douglas and Shetland's Aly Bain and artists include Mike McGoldrick, Bela Fleck, Donal Lunny, Phil Cunningham, Danny Thompson, Donald Shaw, John Doyle, John McCusker, James Mackintosh, Sarah Jarosz, Sam Bush, Russ Barenberg, Nollaig Casey, Dirk Powell, Sharon Shannon, Jim Murray, Declan O'Rourke and Amos Lee.

Leavening the intimacy of the music-making is a strong element of Highland scenic photography, while a greater emphasis on informal backstage conversations and stories serves to highlight the series' historic qualities of collaboration and performance.


SUN 01:10 ArtWorks Scotland (b0140v4c)
Gerry Rafferty: Right Down the Line

Gerry Rafferty, who died in January 2011, was one of Scotland's best loved singer/songwriters, famous around the world for hits such as Baker Street and Stuck in the Middle With You.

This ArtWorks Scotland film, narrated by David Tennant, tells the story of Rafferty's life through his often autobiographical songs and includes contributions from Gerry's daughter Martha and brother Jim, friends and colleagues including Billy Connolly, John Byrne and Joe Egan, admirers such as Tom Robinson and La Roux, and words and music from Rafferty himself.


SUN 02:10 Gerry Rafferty Remembered (b01d0s66)
Ricky Ross presents highlights from a special Celtic Connections 2012 concert in memory of Paisley-born singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Singers paying a musical tribute include Paul Brady, Ron Sexsmith, Barbara Dickson, The Proclaimers, Rab Noakes, Jack Bruce and James Vincent McMorrow.


SUN 03:40 Natural World (b007j217)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:10 today]



MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2012

MON 19:00 World News Today (b01cqp4l)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00q2pg7)
Series 1

Settle to Garsdale

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, he travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.

Michael's second epic journey takes him north, from Preston to Scotland, on one of the first railways to cross the border. On this second leg, he returns to the historic Settle-Carlisle line to find out what has happened to it since he helped save it in the 1980s. Along the way, he explores the magnificent Ribblehead viaduct, finds out about the navvies who helped to build it and catches a steam train along the line.


MON 20:00 Ice Dogs (b01cz5q7)
Episode 1

In the harshest winter in Siberian memory, Benedict Allen is in Siberia's remotest and most secretive province of Chukotka to learn from native hunters how to use a team of husky dogs to travel 1,500 kilometres into the Arctic and attempt to cross the Bering Strait into Alaska.

On his first day's training he gets frostbite and is only saved from being dragged into the icy sea by one of his guides. Soon after there is a break in the weather, and in a place where clear blue skies are far rarer than frostbite they start on their epic trek. After his disastrous first outing, this doesn't seem such a good idea.

Having successfully crossed a frozen bay, Benedict and his team go over a cliff before getting lost in the deadly Arctic night. On a hunt with a local official into the trackless tundra, they become disorientated and totally lost. Night falls and their snowmobile breaks down in the heart of polar bear country and the territory of the Arctic wolf, the largest in the world.

Originally broadcast in 2002.


MON 21:00 Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On (b01cqp75)
In 2008, Pedigree Dogs Exposed lifted the lid on the true extent of the health and welfare problems faced by pedigree dogs in the UK. The startling exposé of harmful breeding practices generated a massive reaction from the public and from those involved in dog breeding.

The programme's producer Jemima Harrison returns to explore what has happened since she made the original film. Now a campaigner on dog welfare, Jemima takes a personal look at the positive changes that have been introduced since the original film and investigates areas of continuing concern, particularly among breeds like the pug, the bulldog and the Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

Jemima hears from dog breeders and a range of experts, many of whom express grave worries about the future of some of our best-loved breeds. She asks whether, with so much that needs to be done to improve these dogs' health and welfare, now is the time to radically restructure how the world of pedigree dogs is run and regulated.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b01cqp77)
Fire in Babylon

Documentary which tells the story of how West Indies cricket triumphed over its colonial masters through the achievements of one of the most gifted teams in sporting history. Key players of the 1980s side recount how it emerged to smash the giants of cricket - first Australia and then England. In a turbulent era of race riots in England and civil unrest in the Caribbean, the West Indian cricketers, led by the enigmatic Viv Richards, struck a defiant blow at the forces of white prejudice worldwide. Their undisputed skill, combined with a fearless spirit, allowed them to dominate the genteel game at the highest level, on their own terms. This is their story, told in their own words.


MON 23:25 Ice Dogs (b01cz5q7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 00:20 The Secret Life of Ice (b016fpyy)
Ice is one of the strangest, most beguiling and mesmerising substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is transparent, yet it can glow with colour, it is powerful enough to shatter rock, but it can melt in the blink of an eye. It takes many shapes, from the fleeting beauty of a snowflake to the multimillion-tonne vastness of a glacier and the eeriness of the ice fountains of far-flung moons.

Science writer Dr Gabrielle Walker has been obsessed with ice ever since she first set foot on Arctic sea ice. In this programme, she searches out some of the secrets hidden deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, to preserve our past and inform our future.


MON 01:20 Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On (b01cqp75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:20 Storyville (b01cqp77)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]



TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2012

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b01cqptc)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World (b00qbvqw)
Series 1

The Golden Ocean

Historian and sailor Dan Snow presents the second episode in this four-part series examining the remarkable story of how the country's greatest institution - her navy - has shaped her history. In The Golden Ocean, Snow charts the period from 1690 to 1759 and reveals how England - soon to be Britain - and her navy rose from the depths of military and economic disaster to achieve global supremacy.

In 1690, France ruled the waves and the Royal Navy was in tatters. King William III had taken England into a disastrous war against the most powerful country in Europe. If England was to survive, it needed a new navy, one capable of carrying the fight to its enemies anywhere in the world.

To achieve this would require a national effort unlike anything that had been seen before. King William III's determination to achieve mastery of the seas unleashed a chain reaction of revolutions in finance, industry and agriculture which reshaped the landscape and created the country's first great credit boom. Fifty years before the Industrial Revolution, the Royal Navy became the engine of global change, propelling Britain into the modern world.

It had the desired effect at sea. By 1759, French forces around the world were capitulating to Britain's superior Navy. For the first time in her history, Britannia really did rule the waves.


TUE 20:30 Timothy Spall: All at Sea (b01cqptf)
Stags by the Sea

Timothy Spall and his wife Shane are back on board their beloved barge the Princess Matilda as they conclude their trip around the British coast.

The Spalls visit Northumberland, Newcastle and Hartlepool. Starting in Amble and the neighbouring town of Warkworth, Tim and Shane are in awe of this historic part of England as they visit the beautiful Church of St Lawrence and Warkworth Castle. In Amble, Tim meets a young sailor circumnavigating Britain in the opposite direction who, like Tim, was inspired to take to the sea after surviving leukaemia.

Next stop is Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a place he is truly fond of as he has been welcomed there ever since he played Barry in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Along the way he meets actress Melanie Hill, who played Barry's first wife Hazel. Tim says that most of Britain saw Barry as a 'bit of a radish, a prannet', but that the Geordies thought of him as a 'sensitive character' and have always made him welcome. He takes us on a tour of his favourite places in the city.

After Newcastle it's on to Hartlepool, which Tim discovers translates to 'Stags by the Sea'. They soon find themselves trapped there after dramatically aborting a journey to Whitby whilst at sea. The North Sea once again reminds us that it's not to be messed with.


TUE 21:00 How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine (b00syt1w)
Fourteen years in the making and costing over a billion pounds, the Astute nuclear submarine is one of the most technologically advanced machines in the world, and for over a year the BBC filmed its construction inside one of the most secure and secret places in the country.

An amazing piece of British engineering or a controversial waste of tax payers' money? This documentary allows viewers to make up their own minds.

Among many of the workers, the film features Erin Browne, a 19-year-old apprentice electrician who wires up the boat; Commander Paul Knight, responsible for the safety of the nuclear reactor; and Derek Parker, whose job involves moving massive pieces of the submarine that weigh hundreds of tons into position before the welding team join them together.

Amazing computer graphics take us inside the construction of the submarine itself, giving a blueprint of the design, the life support systems and the weaponry, and help illustrate the areas that national security precluded filming in.

The story also takes a dramatic turn when an unforeseen event means the submarine has to sail into the open sea - for the first time - during one of the wettest and windiest weekends of the year.


TUE 22:00 Natural World (b0078ps7)
2004-2005

Wolf Pack

Documentary following the lives of the members of the world's largest wolf pack in Yellowstone National Park. Daughters plot behind their father's back, sister slays sister and steals her lover, and a family is torn apart.


TUE 22:50 Catholics (b01cl83g)
Priests

Filmed over six months and with extraordinary access, an intimate behind-the-scenes portrait of Allen Hall in London, one of only three remaining Roman Catholic seminaries in Britain.

This is the first of a new three-part series directed by award-winning filmmaker Richard Alwyn about being Catholic in Britain today. Each film - one about men, one about women, one about children - reveals a different Catholic world, showing Catholicism to be a rich but complex identity and observing how this shapes people's lives.

As the Catholic priesthood struggles to recover from the scandal of child abuse, numbers of men applying to join have fallen greatly. Just 19 men were ordained in England and Wales in 2010. In this first film, Alwyn meets the men who still feel themselves called to this role, including funk band roadie turned first-year student, Rob Hunt. A cradle Catholic, Rob ignored his faith for years before deciding his life was veering off course. With little education, he thought he had as much chance of becoming a priest as becoming an astronaut. Today, surrounded by boxsets of The Sweeney, he is adapting to seminary life.

Andrew Gallagher is in his final year at Allen Hall. Now 30, he previously worked in a City law firm, but felt he couldn't ignore a lifelong calling - at school, his nickname was Priest.

The film follows the seminarians through a timetable which ranges from Biblical Greek to lessons on how to live a celibate life. Everything builds towards priestly ordination when the seminarians believe they will be fundamentally altered as human beings, only then able to celebrate the Eucharist and perform the act that is central to Catholic life, the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

'I will give you shepherds after my own heart', said the prophet Jeremiah, stating God's chosen method for guiding His people. This film brings rare and moving insight into those who believe themselves to be God's shepherds in the 21st Century.


TUE 23:50 Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World (b00qbvqw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 00:50 Timothy Spall: All at Sea (b01cqptf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 01:20 How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine (b00syt1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 02:20 Catholics (b01cl83g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:50 today]


TUE 03:20 Timothy Spall: All at Sea (b01cqptf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 29 FEBRUARY 2012

WED 19:00 World News Today (b01cqrdp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00q2pvm)
Series 1

Windermere to Kendal

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, he travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.

Michael's second epic journey takes him north, from Preston to Scotland, on one of the first railways to cross the border. On this third leg, he takes a steamboat tour of Lake Windermere, visits Wordsworth's home village of Grasmere and makes sausages with a local Herdwick sheep farmer.


WED 20:00 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010v8dx)
The Kitchen

Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palaces, ends the series by looking at the room we now spend the most money on, but was once thought of as the most dirty, dangerous and undesirable room in the house - the kitchen. From baking bread in a Tudor kitchen to spit-roasting mutton with a dog to doing a week's Victorian re-cycling to trying out 1950s labour-saving gadgets, Lucy tracks the changes that have turned the kitchen from a room of hard work into the appliance-packed room we know today.


WED 21:00 The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (b01cqrdr)
Series 1

The Worsted Viper

Mrs Bradley visits the seaside resort of Porth Carrack, where she is to present Inspector Christmas with the freedom of the town. The vicar's daughter is found dead, strangled with a worsted viper.


WED 22:00 Britain's Best Drives (b00j4dfr)
Lake District

Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.

Richard drives a sporty, convertible Triumph TR3A around some of the Lake District's most famous roads. He gets the lowdown on the area from author and resident Hunter Davies, takes on a notorious road, celebrates his birthday at one of Britain's highest pubs, and learns how climate change is affecting this delicate landscape.


WED 22:30 Lowdown (b01cqrdt)
Zirco Goes Berko

Alex and Bob need to get a photo of a tennis star who has faked a finger injury to get out of a match, but they don't have the code to the lift in his hotel and security is tight. On top of that, Alex has got a wart where a wart shouldn't be and Dr James thinks it might be herpes.


WED 23:00 Story of Light Entertainment (b00792c1)
Double Acts

The great double acts have always been at the heart of light entertainment. They have endured through every twist and turn in the story of showbusiness, but behind the smiles, the dance routines, the jokes and the songs there is a whole other world of intense pressure and anxiety.

This episode looks at all the double acts from Laurel and Hardy to Ant and Dec. Why do they work? Why do we love them? And why do they so often end up hating each other? It examines the comedy gold produced by legendary double acts like Morecambe and Wise and Reeves and Mortimer, as well the bitter feuds and fall-outs of Mike and Bernie Winters, Cannon and Ball and Newman and Baddiel.

Stars featured include Mike Winters, Eddie Large, Sid Little, Vic Reeves, Cannon and Ball, David Baddiel, Hale and Pace and many more.


WED 00:30 Inspector Montalbano (b01cqmm2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 02:20 Lowdown (b01cqrdt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


WED 02:50 Britain's Best Drives (b00j4dfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 03:20 Story of Light Entertainment (b00792h4)
Radio Stars

In the 1930s and 1940s the biggest names in entertainment were the stars of the radio and over 60 years later it is still home to some of the biggest names around. But why does radio still appeal to TV stars like Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans, Michael Parkinson, Ricky Gervais and Terry Wogan? Maybe it's because radio is the real hotbed of ideas that television feeds off.

This episode shows why the old-fashioned wireless has survived and flourished in the face of competition from television. It looks at what radio entertainers have given to TV over the decades and at the talent from TV that has invigorated radio. We discover how radio can be as ruthless and unforgiving as anywhere else in the entertainment world and the truth about those who got burned along the way.

Featuring interviews with Terry Wogan, Jimmy Savile, Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis, David Jacobs, Pete Murray, Matthew Bannister, Annie Nightingale and many more.



THURSDAY 01 MARCH 2012

THU 19:00 World News Today (b01cqrvn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01cqrvq)
24/02/77

Noel Edmonds presents Racing Cars, Barbara Dickson, Leo Sayer, the Real Thing, Heatwave, Bryan Ferry and ELO. Dance sequence by Legs and Co.


THU 20:00 Woof! A Horizon Guide to Dogs (b01cqrvs)
Dallas Campbell looks back through the Horizon archives to find out what science can tell us about our best friend the dog, and whether new thinking should change the way we treat them. From investigating the domestic dog's wild wolf origins to discovering the remarkable impact that humans have had on canine evolution, Dallas explores why our bond with dogs is so strong and how we can best use that to manage them.


THU 21:00 Catholics (b01cqrvv)
Children

'Show me the child of seven and I'll show you the man', goes the Jesuit proverb. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Richard Alwyn observes the truth of the saying in this film about children becoming Catholic.

Filmed throughout Lent and into summer 2011, it focuses on the children of St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School in Chipping, Lancashire. The tiny rural school has 33 pupils, six of whom are preparing to make their First Holy Communion.

Alwyn's lyrical, poignant film observes the essence of Catholicism being distilled into young children. Encouraged to celebrate the riches of the natural world and to remember those less fortunate than themselves, the children are also required to reflect on Christ's brutal death and resurrection. Occasionally, this graphic story of suffering might seem to threaten the children's infectious charm and innocence.

The local parish priest, Fr Anthony Grimshaw, now in his 70s, has a strong presence in the children's lives. To the younger ones he's the avuncular character who comes into school to read Winnie the Pooh. To the older ones, he is more 'on message', talking with them about faith and fielding questions about his belief in the existence of Satan in this world.

Around this observation of the Catholic life of the children and the school is the story of a handful of its pupils, aged seven and eight, preparing for their First Holy Communion. Here, the children are introduced to the bewildering mystery at the heart of the Catholic faith - when they believe bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

This beautiful film is full of the spirit of childhood and shows how being Catholic is a complex identity that can bring both agony and ecstasy.


THU 22:00 The Singing Detective (b0074qy7)
Pitter Patter

Marlow is getting better and the different strands of his fiction and reality begin to occupy the same time and place.


THU 23:00 Natural World (b007j217)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:10 on Sunday]


THU 23:50 Natural World (b0078ps7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:40 Top of the Pops (b01cqrvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:20 Woof! A Horizon Guide to Dogs (b01cqrvs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:20 How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine (b00syt1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 03:20 Catholics (b01cqrvv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 02 MARCH 2012

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01cqt70)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Symphony (b016pwgy)
Genesis and Genius

Simon Russell Beale presents a radical reappraisal of the place of the symphony in the modern world and explores the surprising way in which it has shaped our history and identity.

The first episode begins amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution with the arrival in England of Joseph Haydn, dubbed the 'Father of the Symphony'. It continues with Mozart, the genius who wrote his first symphony at the age of eight, and Beethoven, the revolutionary who created the idea of the artist as hero and whose Eroica Symphony changed music for ever.

The music is performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.


FRI 20:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b015sxrd)
Series 5

Episode 3

The best of Nashville, Ireland and Scotland in a format that affords a unique insight into the sheer joy of making music. Recorded in an old hunting lodge at Glen Lyon near Aberfeldy in the Perthshire Highlands, top vocal and instrumental exponents of the country and Celtic traditions gather to rehearse and play together with no audience except themselves and a resident house band.

Music co-directors are Nashville's Jerry Douglas and Shetland's Aly Bain and artists include Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Phil Cunningham, Jerry Douglas, Mike McGoldrick, Danny Thompson, John Doyle, John McCusker, James Mackintosh, Muireann Nic Amhlaoidh, Donald Shaw, Amos Lee, Alison Krauss, Sarah Jarosz, Russ Barenberg, Dirk Powell and Nollaig Casey.

Leavening the intimacy of the music-making is a strong element of Highland scenic photography, while a greater emphasis on informal backstage conversations and stories serves to highlight the series' historic qualities of collaboration and performance.


FRI 21:00 The Joy of Disco (b01cqt72)
Documentary about how a much-derided music actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979 disco soundtracked gay liberation, foregrounded female desire in the age of feminism and led to the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, before taking the world by storm. With contributions from Nile Rodgers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager.


FRI 22:00 Disco at the BBC (b01cqt74)
A foot-stomping return to the BBC vaults of Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later with Jools as the programme spins itself to a time when disco ruled the floor, the airwaves and our minds. The visual floorfillers include classics from luminaries such as Chic, Labelle and Rose Royce to glitter ball surprises by The Village People.


FRI 23:00 Queens of Disco (b0074thh)
Graham Norton profiles the leading ladies of the disco era, including Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Madonna and 'honorary disco queen' Sylvester. Includes contributions from the queens themselves, plus Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, choreographer Arlene Phillips, songwriters Ashford and Simpson, disco artists Verdine White from Earth, Wind and Fire, Bonnie Pointer of The Pointer Sisters and Nile Rodgers of Chic.


FRI 00:00 The Joy of Disco (b01cqt72)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:00 Disco at the BBC (b01cqt74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Queens of Disco (b0074thh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Transatlantic Sessions (b015sxrd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 03:30 Symphony (b016pwgy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]